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Facebook for Readers: What Is It Good For?

January 31, 2008 In last week's Publishers Weekly, Lynn Andriani had a fun piece: a diary of a week she spent bookishly on the flavor-of-last-month social networking site Facebook. Saying Facebook is last month's thing is not a comment on Andriani's reporting -- it's a comment on how fast things move in the new media universe. Right now the just-out-of-college types I know are talking about tumblr and Ning, and they're probably behind the times, too.

I'm on Facebook. Like the other social-networking sites I use, I'm on Facebook primarily because it's a great PR and marketing tool. Yes, I like seeing my actual friends there, too, but the thing about friends is that you'd find a way to connect with them no matter what, wouldn't you? I don't need Facebook to keep in touch with people I talk to on the phone, meet for coffee, and email regularly. I need Facebook for the people I like but don't contact often, for people I like but don't know very well yet, and -- here's the important part for readers -- for people with whom I have similar interests but no other connection.

Some of my best Facebook contacts and communications have come not from my email account address book or from one of the (largely silly) applications you can add to your page, but from messages and friend requests that come in from authors, readers, editors, and critics who find me through their friends' pages.

I do use Visual Bookshelf, Shelfari, and Good Reads, but I don't spend much time on them right now (maybe I will again someday). Right now I'm content to simply have a Facebook page and make some connections.

Take a look at Andriani's article -- what do you think? Do you have a Facebook page? Do you use it for your reading and/or writing life? How?

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on January 31, 2008 | Comments (1)